Angels’ Dan Haren enjoys bumpy victory over Brewers

Reporting from Phoenix -- After breezing through his first three spring-training starts, in which he gave up no runs and struck out 15 in 10 innings, Angels right-hander Dan Haren hit a patch of turbulence Friday. The bumps, strange as it seems, were welcomed.

Haren hit Nyjer Morgan with a pitch and walked Ryan Braun to open the fourth inning, and both came around to score on an Aramis Ramirez single and a Jonathan Lucroy sacrifice fly.

But those were the only runs Haren gave up in five innings of a 6-3 split-squad victory in Maryvale Baseball Park, a game that featured Mark Trumbo’s laser of a solo home run to right-center field in the eighth inning and Torii Hunter’s run-scoring double in the seventh.

“It was nice to labor through an inning,” said Haren, who faced seven batters in the fourth and struck out Carlos Gomez with two on to end the inning. “It was a pretty flawless spring to that point. It was probably good that I needed to get out of a jam and gain a little endurance.”

Haren gave up five hits, struck out three and walked one during his 67-pitch outing, and he threw 10 more game-speed pitches in the bullpen to get his pitch count up to 75. Friday also marked the first time Haren worked with new catcher Chris Iannetta, an important step in the relationship between the two.

“We were more in sync as the game went on,” Haren said. “It’s a learning process. We got mixed up a few times the first few innings, throwing certain pitches in certain counts, but as the game went on there was less shaking off and more nodding. He’s smart. He does his homework. It’s not like he’s a rookie.”

Haren was followed on the mound by closer Jordan Walden, who gave up one single but struck out two in a scoreless sixth inning, a marked contrast to his last outing, when he gave up four earned runs and five hits in 1/3 inning.

“He needs to get into that closer mentality, and that’s tough to do sometimes in the fourth, fifth, sixth inning,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “But he was much better today. He was excellent.”

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Angels’ Dan Haren enjoys bumpy victory over Brewers